Alzheon To Participate in Global Dementia Legacy Meeting to Increase Investment in Dementia

LEXINGTON, Mass.--Alzheon, Inc., today announced that it has been invited to participate in the world's first Global Dementia Legacy Event, hosted by the UK Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, MP, and the World Dementia Envoy, Dr. Dennis Gillings, CBE. Alzheon’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Martin Tolar, will be among the political and industry leaders in attendance at the event along with leaders from the World Health Organization, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), global Alzheimer’s associations and charities, and investors. Expanding on the initiatives of the G8 Dementia Summit held in December 2013, this conference will propose ways to increase and apply investments in dementia. Invited leaders will convene at the prestigious Guildhall in the City of London on June 19, 2014, to discuss finance and social impact investment in dementia – a condition for which the vast majority of patients suffer from Alzheimer’s disease but also includes vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia and other causes of cognitive decline.

“Alzheimer’s disease is one of the largest medical, economic and social challenges of our times. In addition to addressing the human impact of this devastating disease on patients and their families, we must develop creative investment solutions to address the current impasse in Alzheimer’s research and drug development,” said Martin Tolar, MD, PhD, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alzheon. “We commend the initiative of the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the UK Secretary of State for Health for continuing to build on the momentum of the G8 Dementia Summit to bring into action ways to increase investment in innovative approaches for addressing the unmet needs of patients with dementia around the world."

The Global Dementia Legacy Event will explore ways that financial investment can support efforts to prevent, treat and support people to live well with dementia, including plans to establish a private and philanthropic Global Dementia Innovation Fund. At the conference, international experts and institutions will further define initiatives that build on the commitments agreed to by G8 leaders at the G8 Dementia Summit for a new international approach to dementia research, stimulating greater investment in innovation, securing greater collaboration, accelerating the development of new drugs for the prevention and treatment of dementia, and improving quality of life for people with dementia. People across the world will be able to watch a live video stream of the event broadcast in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese on the Dementia Challenge site hosted by the UK Department of Health.

“Leaders from government, research and industry recognize the global crisis of dementia, affecting not only our patients but now also healthcare systems and economies across the world,” Dr. Tolar commented further. “At Alzheon, we are committed to rapidly advancing our novel drug candidate, ALZ-801, as one of the few innovative medicines with the potential to reach Alzheimer’s disease patients in the next few years. We are honored to continue to play a role in global leadership forums and to offer Alzheon’s expertise to accelerate progress in our shared goal of bringing new treatments to patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.”

About Alzheon

Alzheon, Inc., is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on brain health, memory and aging, developing innovative treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Alzheon pursues drug development programs that have previously been tested in extensive efficacy studies in Alzheimer’s disease patients and where new insights can be applied. Based on a drug development platform that yields diverse and novel compounds, the company is building a pipeline of innovative drugs to target the underlying pathogenesis of neurodegeneration in order to improve the symptoms and slow the progression of these devastating disorders. Our lead product candidate, ALZ-801, is a first-in-class small molecule inhibitor of amyloid aggregation and neurotoxicity, and is advancing into a confirmatory Phase 2/3 study for certain patient populations with Alzheimer’s disease or at risk for the disease. Alzheon has world-leading capabilities in drug development for Alzheimer’s and related diseases, and we apply state-of-the-art clinical development approaches to improve the likelihood of success with product candidates in our pipeline as well as additional therapeutic assets from in-licensing. Alzheon is located in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA. For more information, please visit www.alzheon.com.